Conversion of Land Use

In one line

A field becomes a plot when a revenue officer says so, on payment, and that single permission is where most of India's agricultural land is lost.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: conversion is the permission to use land assessed for one purpose for another, and in Maharashtra it is the permission for non-agricultural use under the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966, under which land held for agriculture may not be used for a non-agricultural purpose without the permission of the Collector, granted on payment of the conversion charge and subject to conditions, with the land thereafter assessed at the non-agricultural rate; and the permission must be consistent with the development plan and, in a planning area, with the development permission of the planning authority.

What conversion actually is

Land in an Indian revenue record carries a purpose. It is assessed for agriculture, or for a non-agricultural use, and the assessment is the annual land revenue.

To use agricultural land for anything else is to change the purpose for which it is assessed, and the Code requires permission for that. The permission is called non-agricultural permission, and in practice everybody calls the resulting land "N.A. land".

Three things follow from the permission. The assessment changes to the non-agricultural rate. A conversion charge or premium is payable. And the permission is granted subject to conditions, which may include the setback, the access, the drainage and the period within which the use must begin.

And in a planning area a second permission is needed, from the planning authority under the town planning Act, and the two are separate: the revenue permission says the land may be used non-agriculturally, the planning permission says what may be built.

The procedure

An application to the Collector, with the record of rights, the measurement plan and the layout.

A reference to the planning authority where the land is within a planning area, for its opinion on whether the proposed use conforms to the development plan.

A no objection from the other departments where required: the irrigation department where the land is in a command, the forest department where forest is near, the pollution control board for an industrial use.

The order, granting or refusing, with the conversion charge assessed.

And a deemed permission in some circumstances. Several States, Maharashtra among them, have introduced a deemed conversion where the land is shown in the development plan for a non-agricultural use, so that a separate revenue permission is not needed, which removes a stage but also removes a check.

What is wrong with it, which is what MU is asking

It is a revenue decision, not an ecological one. The Collector is applying a revenue code. The test is the payment of the charge, the conformity with the plan and the absence of an objection, not whether the land performs a function that will be lost.